Rotterdam 2025 Review: FIUME O MORTE!, Playful Croatian Psychogeographic Docudrama About Nationalism

Italian poet, playwright, officer and nationalist Gabriele D'Annunzio led a contingent of soldiers to occupy the city of Fiume, now Rijeka, Croatia, seeking its annexation to Italy in 1919. This 16-month occupation remains a peculiar episode in both the city's and European history. A century later, Rijeka-born filmmaker Igor Bezinović collaborates with the city's residents to revisit and reinterpret this event in Fiume o morte! (Fiume or Death).

Bezinović's directorial approach often blends documentary and fiction elements to explore historical and social themes. His earlier works, such as The Blockade and A Brief Excursion, exemplified this style. The Blockade documented a student protest at the University of Zagreb, providing an inside look at activism and institutional dynamics. A Brief Excursion followed a group on an impromptu journey, blurring the lines between reality and allegory. These works demonstrated the director's interest in collective experiences and the interplay between past and present.

Fiume o morte! aligns with Bezinović's thematic focus, tackling a historical event through modern eyes. The film employs a hybrid documentary format, combining archival footage, interviews, and re-enactments.

This docu-fiction style carries a spirit reminiscent of Radu Jude, who also engages with political events that shaped a nation without being heavy-handed or didactic, instead leaning into the lighter side despite the circumstances. Bezinović's latest work channels this spirit, structuring the docudrama so that viewers unaware of the historical context will have an engaging viewing experience.

The film begins with a short survey in the streets of Rijeka, asking locals whether they recall the peculiar personality of Gabriele D'Annunzio. Bezinović then proceeds to ask them whether they would be willing to participate in the restaging of D'Annunzio's occupation in the city's spots where the events actually unfolded. Many locals surprisingly agree to participate in the director's site-specific theatrical experiment.

The leading characters are portrayed by a rotating cast of non-professional actors; D'Annunzio himself is depicted by a group of bald men, while extras participate in recreating scenes from archival photographs to recreate the period into the present.

The film critically examines the tactics of performance, manipulation, and propaganda employed during the siege, drawing parallels to modern political performativity. By juxtaposing historical events with contemporary reflections, Fiume o morte! evaluates the enduring impact of nationalist ideologies and the ways in which history is remembered, retold and deconstructed.

The performances by local non-professional casts recruited from the streets do not exert the heavy-handedness that often comes with total amateurs. It appears that Bezinović conducted rehearsals to ensure smooth acting that would not disrupt the suspension of disbelief despite the modern backdrop.

Even more importantly, the rhythm is based on plot-driven storytelling, despite scenes being essentially stand-alone vignettes set in the places where they historically occurred while Bezinović utilizes a rather playful and colorful directing style and composition. The performances and rhythm ensure Fiume o morte! is not the usual arthouse oeuvre but has an audience appeal underpinned by humor and meta-textual layers, which does not necessitate the period set designs except the costumes.

Bezinović's docudrama resembles Christos Passalis and Syllas Tzoumerkas' work The City and The City, though it is considerably less glum given the historical chapter it portrays. Bezinović thus joins the ranks of hybrid storytellers utilizing psychogeography.

However, unlike Passalis and Tzoumerkas, he inserts conventional documentary tropes such as archive footage and photos, occasionally talking heads, and voice-over explaining the context, which helps to navigate separate vignettes. Fiume o morte! is an exploration of collective memory and the reconstruction of historical narratives at the intersections of  individual, society, and national identity.

Bezinović's fresh approach makes the psychogeographic history lesson from Rijeka lively, engaging, and relevant, which, similar to Jude's pricklier satires, can find its audience even outside the arthouse crowd.